Australia’s Brayden Meyer bounced back from disappointment in last night’s Team competition by setting a world record and claiming his first STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Individual World Championship title since 2019. In a night flush with records at another sold-out Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, Germany, USA’s Matt Cogar and Canada’s Ben Cumberland joined Meyer on the podium with silver and bronze medals respectively.
With STIHL celebrating its 100th anniversary, the 2026 TIMBERSPORTS® season reached an epic conclusion with the Individual World Championship as the world’s 12 best TIMBERSPORTS® athletes took to the stage in front of a raucous 6,500-strong crowd to compete across all six TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines: Underhand Chop, Stock Saw, Standing Block Chop, Single Buck, Springboard and Hot Saw.
After suffering a shock semi-final defeat with Team Australia last night, Brayden Meyer was determined to make amends in the Individual event and came out firing from the beginning, setting a stunning world record of 10.26 seconds in the Underhand Chop and establishing a pace that his rivals simply could not match over the following five disciplines.
Finishing in the top three in each individual discipline, Meyer recorded a personal best of 10.06 seconds in the Stock Saw and set back-to-back national records of 10.76 seconds and 11.46 seconds in the Standing Block and Single Buck respectively.
The opening four disciplines put Meyer in a commanding position heading into the highly anticipated Springboard and the Australian widened the gap between him and the rest of the field with a time of 39.18.
Entering the final discipline of Hot Saw with a massive lead, Meyer was left with a victory lap to the title and set a personal best of 5.60 seconds for good measure as he swept to his first Individual crown since 2019 with a huge total of 80 points in the final standings.
Joining Meyer on the podium were USA’s Matt Cogar and Canada’s Ben Cumberland – mirroring last night’s Team event in which the three nations also shared the top three spots.
Cogar was the definition of consistency throughout the competition, finishing in the top three in half of the six disciplines – including setting a national record of 11.28 seconds in the Underhand Chop and claiming first position in the Hot Saw with an incredible time of 5.35 seconds. His performance saw him claim his second silver medal of the weekend following Team USA’s finishing as runners-up in the Team event.
For Ben Cumberland, it was a case of what might have been as he followed up a national record of 11.28 seconds in the Underhand Chop opener with a scarcely believable world record of 10.62 seconds in the Standing Block Chop. Sandwiched between those records was an unfortunate disqualification in the Stock Saw, which dented his gold medal hopes. Propelled by his world record, however, he set a further personal best in the Springboard and produced three clean cuts in the Hot Saw to clinch the bronze and edge New Zealand’s Shane Jordan into fourth
The standout European performances came from Sweden’s Emil Hansson and Spain’s Individual World Championship debutant, Iker Vicente.
Hansson set national records in the Underhand Chop, Standing Block Chop and Springboard, but came undone in the final discipline, with his Hot Saw disqualification ending his medal challenge. Meanwhile, Vicente recovered from disqualification in the Underhand Chop to post national records in the next four disciplines and finished his competition with a personal best in the Hot Saw.
2026 Individual World Champion, Brayden Meyer, commented: “It’s unreal to take the title for the second time – there’s no better feeling. I was hungry all day and knew I had a good chance of winning it. I really stuck to the job the whole day and now I’ve finally come out as world champion. It was great knowing I already had the title ahead of the Hot Saw and being able to celebrate a bit before I went out. I really want to thank everyone back home for their support. I tried to put yesterday aside to get the job done and I’m happy that I pulled it off.”
2026 Individual World Championship runner-up, Matt Cogar, said: “I’m very happy with today. It’s such an amazing time being up here on stage. The fans are so passionate and just being able to say, ‘Hey, I pushed through, dug deep and made it onto the podium’ is awesome and all I could ask for. Stuttgart was such an electric place to be and it holds a very special place in my history. It never disappoints with such enthusiastic fans. This sport takes me around the world, it’s such a great opportunity to be here and I’m very happy today.”
2026 Individual World Championship bronze medalist, Ben Cumberland, added: “I am very thankful for where God put me today. I can’t thank everyone who has put time into this enough. The Underhand Chop went alright, I didn’t have the splashiest block, but I had a pretty decent cut for what I had. Stock Saw was a disqualification. I hadn’t hit the kill switch once in training this year, so there’s a first time for everything. Standing Block Chop was unreal and Single Buck went pretty well too. ‘Operation Round Two’ was the goal this year. I made it to the Hot Saw for the second time in Stuttgart, put three cookies on the deck and I’m pretty happy about that.”
Full results and final standings for the 2026 Individual World Championships can be found on the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® database.
